Saturday, July 31, 2010

Qada' and Qadar | All about destiny

It really fascinates me that people can actually misuse the terms Qada’ and Qadar and unite them in an attempt at killing themselves.Yes, mind you, I had used the word killing themselves i.e. suicide. In fact, it’s so often and badly associated with wrong ideas that I feel that it’s more of an abuse than a misuse!Take the instance of a dialogue between two men, one advising the other to do regular medical checkup. The other simply cuts all his speech by saying that such issues are of Qada’ and Qadar. Meaning to say, he doesn’t want to know if he is diseased or healthy, he just wants to accept it as it is. If he happens to be diseased, he’d prefer to die suddenly, perhaps without a warning or to prepare his family, or even himself as he heads to a world where allhis deeds would be cut but for three things, as the Hadeeth states, that when a son of Adam dies, cut is all his deeds but for three, a pious son who prays for him, beneficial knowledge that he imparted, and a “’amaljariah”.In another light, no doctor can tell you when or where you’re going to die. Neither I suppose can any saintly man, or an astrologer, as it is Allah SWT with whom rests the knowledge of the "Al-Gaib"- the unseen.

With a few precious warnings however, you might be able to change your life and those around you. It is true, no one but Allah knows when you will die and if He wills it so, you may die with a very common and curable infection. The difference however, may be reflected by a Hadeeth stating that, “For every malady, a remedy, save death”. So we should strive to save ourselves, and prevent damage to our body while Allah still wills that we live.

Also, we’d want people to pray for us if we find out we’re all ill. As we know, a parent’s prayer for his child and a child’s prayer for his parent is not rejected by Allah. Though Allah Has pre-determined the time of our death, it’s been also said that prayer can postpone our death by some time. Knowing all of this, how dare we say that it’s not in our hands to alter some part of our future? The bottom line is, we still dont know about it.Qada’ and Qadar is definitely a very confusing issue. To imagine that no matter what choice we make or alter, we are still within the limits set by Allah for us and that we are within His Plan is fantastic. But we must remember the characteristics of Islam, and recall that within some rigid laws we also have flexibility. This concept of flexibility, within a limit, tells us that while we might have to accept whatever happens to us, we must still try to improve the situation in ways Allah approves of.

We can’t sit down awaiting our death, we can’t blindly go in the middle of the road without looking around and sayit’s Qada and Qadar that decides whether you get hit by a car or not. Where’s your preparation, where’s your supplements for Allah to protect you, where’s your simple effort of looking right and left before you cross a road?

If everything is so pre-decided, then why are you here in this world? Why would you be punished for your sins, if you think that it is prewritten what you are going to do..What is left for you to do?

Imagine a school teacher, who after looking at different students, comes to know that which students will get an A and which one will fail. Ofcourse the teacher knows this beforehand, much earlier than the result, but that doesnt mean it cant be changed. It is upto the student to change his destiny. I would like to point out that all Paulo Coelho Muslim readers must carefully examine each and every point. I have seen many people who swear by Paulo Coelho on issues of destiny, hope and life. An advise would be to read his books, with a constant cross-checking with Islamic concepts..